Piano Lessons: How to approach polyrhythms

9 thoughts on “Piano Lessons: How to approach polyrhythms”

 
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1. How would you play 11 against 6, such Chopin Nocturnes Op 9 #1? Thank you!

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   1. I may make a video on this topic!

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2. What would be interesting is to hear from composers who actually created these rhythms. What inspired them to use them in the first place? Was there a conscious choice to use them?

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3. Hi, Robert!

   1. Regarding 2 against 3, you can think of it as having the same rhythm as the question “How do you do?” with both rhythms beginning on “How”, the three continuing on “do and “do” and the two continuing on “you”. Count 1,2,3,1,2,3 with “How”,”do”,”do”,”How”,”do”,”do” and then add the “you” as an extra half-beat between the “do”s. How do-you do, How do-you do, etc.

   2. For 3 against 4, use the question “How do you do to-day?”. Make the gap between “do” and “you” quick and the gap between “to” and “day” quick with two equal (and longer) gaps between the first “you” and “do” and between “do” and the second “you”. Thus: How . . do-you . do . to-day . . How . . do-you . do . to-day, etc.
   The four-beats are on “How”, both the “do”s, and “day”.
   The three-beats are on “how”, “you”, and “to-“.
   If you give equal time to each of the syllables and the dots above, you get the 12 equal portions of time that need to be divided by the notes into groups of three and four.

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   1. Here’s the same thing with a a little editing and re-formatting for clarity:

      1. Regarding 2 against 3, you can think of it as having the same rhythm as the question “How do you do?” with both rhythms beginning on “How”, the three continuing on “do and “do” and the two continuing on “you”.

      Count 1,2,3,1,2,3 with “How”,”do”,”do”,”How”,”do”,”do” and then add the “you” as an extra half-beat between the “do”s:

      How do-you do, How do-you do, etc.

      2. For 3 against 4, use the question “How do you do to-day?”. Make the gap between “do” and “you” quick and the gap between “to” and “day” quick with two equal (and longer) gaps between the first “you” and “do” and between “do” and the second “you”.

      Thus:
      How . . do-you . do . to-day . . How . . do-you . do . to-day . . etc.

      The four-beats are on “How”, both the “do”s, and “day”.
      The three-beats are on “how”, “you”, and “to-“.

      If you give equal time to each of the syllables and the dots above, you get the 12 equal portions of time that need to be organized by the notes into periods of
      – three twelfths (the four-rhythm), and
      – four twelfths (the three rhythm).

      That is:

      How 2 3 do you 3 do 2 to day 2 3 ; How 2 3 do you 3 do 2 to day 2 3 ; etc.

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      1. One more try to describe the rhythm of the last sentence:

         HOW and ah; DO YOU and; DO and TO; DAY and ah;
         HOW and ah; DO YOU and; DO and TO; DAY and ah;
         etc.

         or (for three in the left hand against four in the right):

         BOTH and ah; RIGHT LEFT and; RIGHT and LEFT; RIGHT and ah;
         BOTH and ah; RIGHT LEFT and; RIGHT and LEFT; RIGHT and ah;
         etc.

4. If you can measure 3 against 2 using the common denominator of 6, why can’t you do 3 against 4 using the common denominator of 12?

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   1. I’m sorry, but I don’t know why you can’t … I teach it using the common denominator of 12’s all the time. In the end, you can’t count fast enough to say 1-2-3, etc. But it gets you started very evenly.

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   2. You can, however, it would be very difficult to play up to speed with such fast subdivisions of the beat.

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